AESLA 2024

Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich (Doctora por la Universitat de València) es catedrática de Filología inglesa en la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Charlotte, donde imparte cursos de postgrado y en la licenciatura en Lingüística. Se interesa por la im/politeness, los modelos de género, la construcción de la identidad, los medios de comunicación tradicionales y lo digitales, temas sobre los que ha publicado y pronunciado numerosas conferencias. Forma parte del consejo de varias revistas internacionales, es coeditora jefa del Journal of Language of Aggression and Conflict y de la serie de libros Routledge Focus on (Im)politeness.

Unlocking Cancel Culture and Intergroup Communication: Pragmatic Outlook

In this lecture, I propose a paradigmatic shift in the study of pragmatics and (im)politeness towards an intergroup-oriented framework, aimed at illuminating the dynamics of interactions characterized by the salience of social identities. My focus centers on the contemporary phenomenon of Cancel Culture (CC), a collective form of ostracism wherein individuals perceived to have violated societal norms face widespread social condemnation and exclusion. To comprehensively analyze CC, I introduce a three-layered model that probes its manifestations at the macro, meso, and micro levels. Contrary to prevailing perspectives that primarily scrutinize CC at the macro level, I explore CC's macro, meso, and micro level practices: as a big C conversation, a genre-ecology, and online comments wherein factors such as identity reduction, (im)politeness, and moral emotions converge to shape light group entitativity and agency. By unpacking the intricate interplay between language use, social identities, and collective behaviors, this lecture challenges conventional conceptualizations of CC and sheds light on its underlying mechanisms.